You will be amazed to know that the state of Chhattisgarh is known as the “Rice bowl of India.” The traditional dishes of Chhattisgarh mostly comprises rice and rice flour and the everyday food incorporates green leafy vegetables. Raipur is the capital city of Chhattisgarh and is cosmopolitan by nature. Still you can find people having a sweet spot for the local Chhattisgarhi dishes.
Here are some of the traditional delicacies of Chhattisgarh.
Chousela
Chousela is a Chhattisgarhi variant of Puri, In other cities of India, Puri is generally made from wheat flour. Now if Puri has to be made in a region of rice, it has to have it. The process of making chousela is same as that of making Puri (in fact, a it is bit difficult to roll) but the ingredients include equal proportion of wheat and rice flour. It is thicker and crispier than Puri.
Chilla
It is a thin, crisp pancake made with rice flour. People serve it with tomato and green chutney in the region. It is also a weekly breakfast for the locals.
Dahi vada
In Chhattisgarh, Vada is called as “bara” because of the regional accent. It is made from fermented Urad Dal. Eating the deep fried vada with sugar or chutney is tempting, however the people serve them with curd in the form of Dahi Vada or Dahi bara. It is topped with tamarind chutney, sev, onion, rock-salt to add taste.
Farra
It is again a rice dish made by steaming leftover rice of balls made from rice flour. Farra is then tempered with spices and served with chutneys.
Curry
You will find that people of Chhattisgarh make curry for almost every vegetable. If nothing, then rice dumplings are used to make the curry. Well, the curry here is tangy made with curd and gram flour. The common curries you can find here are rice dumpling curry, bara/vada curry, potato and drumstick curry, yam curry to name a few.
Yam curry is quite amazing, and here is a link to this recipe.
You can also hire a car on day rental in Raipur and hop around places for your food trail.
Here is some more about Chhattisgarhi cuisine from a food blogger’s stance.
Useful links-
5 cool cities to visit near Raipur